No other group of people had a more profound impact on the cultural fabric of America than the Puritans. Religious dissenters from the Church of England, the Puritans paved the way for a history of people immigrating to New World to find refuge from persecution. In most cases, these people escaped oppression only to establish an equally, if not more, oppressive society. The Puritans are the first and most conspicuous example, as their history shows a mix of morality and malice, much of which is shrouded in mystery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a descendant of the Puritans, was confused by this contradiction and captured the dynamics within Puritan society in the Scarlet Letter. Using a blend of allegory, symbolism and realism distinct to his writing style, Hawthorne crafts a story that explores how humans’ quest for freedom is ultimately limited by a natural tendency to escape oppression only to become the oppressor.

         With this purpose in mind, it is not a coincidence that Hawthorne imbues the main characters of the Scarlet Letter with allegorical meaning; he designed them to represent the different elements in the cyclical search for freedom. In this cycle, Hester achieves the truest sense of freedom. The scarlet letter is integral in this attainment. It is her “passport into regions where other women dared not tread” (Hawthorne 80). This realm, where a person accepts their identity and sensuality upfront, is one that other women shrink from. Although it is clear that they have experienced similar “sinful” motivations as Hester, “their outward guise of purity was but a lie,” they are too afraid of the societal constructs which constrain them to acknowledge this (Hawthorne 80). Hester is not afraid, and she obtains a unique knowledge from the experience of wearing the scarlet letter. The symbol leads her to “wander without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness...criticizing all” (Hawthorne 180). She begins to question how one can achieve true freedom within a moral autocracy. This is what no one else in Boston does. T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” illustrates the consequences of failing to question. It causes people to live stuck “Between the potency/ And the existence” (Eliot, Book V. Line 19-20). In other words, people who do not question or “stuff” themselves with thought engage in fall into the “Shadow” (Eliot, Book V. Line 9). They do not experience true freedom as Hester does once she takes a firm stance on her identity. Instead, “The Hollow Men” are trapped in-between wielding real power over their lives and just existing—a real-life purgatory. 

         Although Hester loses her initial liveliness and femininity after assuming the scarlet letter, she does not wade in past regrets or reject her identity. She finds that individuality and strength are gained by quiet self-assertion and reconfiguration. Given that Hester lives in Puritan Boston and Hawthorne writes the novel as a male in the 19th century, this is a bold statement. Hester receives a unique knowledge that even the men and holy figures in the society do not obtain. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, two other main allegorical characters, are testaments to that. If Hester is the questioning of how one achieves freedom, Chillingworth is the abuse of freedom and Dimmesdale is the futile yearning for freedom. They are representative of the majority of Puritans and human society, as the repressive, authoritarian Boston can be extended as an analogue for humans in general. Chillingworth displays a superficial freedom. He is an educated male who travels and spends time with Native Americans along the way. Despite this physical freedom, Chillingworth is actually a parasite. He feeds off of Dimmesdale’s vulnerability because it distracts him from his own feeling of emptiness and lack of self-worth. Chillingworth is “seized...with a terrible fascination...that never set him free again until he had done all his bidding” (Hawthorne 117). Instead of taking the advantage of the freedom gifted to him by birth, he inflicts his past suffering onto the back of others. By seeking revenge, he becomes the oppressor of Hester and Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale cannot escape from Chillingworth’s scheme. Chillingworth becomes the “chief actor in the minister’s poor interior world...he could play upon him...arouse him with a throb of agony” (Hawthorne 127). Every day the physician’s presence reminds him of his sin, and every day that he fails to reveal his secret to others, Dimmesdale falls farther into the shadow described by Eliot. 

         After establishing the deeper framework of the novel using allegory, Hawthorne adds several key symbols into the scenery to advance the idea that humans exist in a system of oppression, whether as the oppressed or the oppressor. The first symbol introduced is the rosebush. Growing next to the prison door, the rosebush “survived out of the stern old wilderness” (Hawthorne 46). It is not supposed to grow. Every element is hostile to its blossoming. However, natural law cannot be conquered and like the sin it represents, the rosebush rises inevitably. Readers see another rosebush in the governor’s garden, where it flowers aside other plants, which fail to grow in the “hard soil amid the close struggle for sustenance” (Hawthorne 97). The rosebush does not need cultivation. It will stem in any environment touched by humans. Hester is the larger rose in Puritan society. Despite societal constructs and rules in place to restrict sensuality, the passion that Hester feels for Dimmesdale springs anyway. The fact that Hester acknowledges this is what separates her from the rest, who because of their deception, cannot socially liberate themselves.

         It should be noted though that Hester only begins to redefine the meaning of her scarlet letter and question Puritan society after she enters the forest. When she and Pearl are in the town, they “must not talk in the marketplace of what happens to us in the forest” (Hawthorne 212). The two environments represent opposing ways of living. The town is civilization. It is run by rules. Everything one does is on display and transgressions are quickly punished. On the other hand, the forest is a space of natural rather than human authority. The fact that Hester lives throughout the book on the edge of town shows how she has incorporated both into her life. When she makes decisions, she follows her instincts and deliberates. Hawthorne uses the antithesis of light and dark to indicate Hester’s progress in doing so. She reaches her greatest moment of liberation when she throws the scarlet letter into the woods. It is an act of consideration, up to this point she has pondered its meaning, as well as an act of passion. The symbol no longer affects what she thinks of herself. This is shown by the sunlight, which for the first time “bursts forth...pouring a very flood into the obscure forest. The objects that had made a shadow hitherto, embodied brightness now.... Such was the sympathy of nature!” (Hawthorne 183). Before then, the light “runs away and hides itself” from Hester (Hawthorne 169). The forest and the contrast between light and dark are symbols that highlight Hester’s gradual acceptance of her past actions.

         Although the Scarlet Letter’s theme about the quest for freedom is universal, Hawthorne adds realism to the novel to show how the Puritan society is an extreme environment in which this quest is practiced. Such a setting enables him to portray the human soul under intense distress. Consideration of the historical context allows readers to empathize with Dimmesdale. In Puritan society, ministers were revered as living traces of God. Anything they said was the absolute truth and law. The popular response to Johnathan Edward’s famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” demonstrates the blind acceptance and respect towards ministers. Despite the incredulity of the frightening images Edwards preached, “the People shall be as the burning of the Lime, as Thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the Fire,” colonial people did not question his word (Edwards 20). They accepted it and found a place for it in their spiritual beliefs. If Dimmesdale were to have revealed his affair earlier, the townspeople would have interpreted his confession as a profound symbolic or hypothetical lesson. This is how many of view Dimmesdale’s calling of Hester and Pearl onto the scaffold before his death. The townspeople are too blinded by his status to see that ministers can also be at fault. Instead of forgiving Dimmesdale, they interpret all of his actions as untouchable. Anything Dimmesdale does under his title will make him seem more “holy.” Thus, he was condemned from the time of his sin to never receive penitence from his community.

         When Hawthorne crafted the Scarlet Letter, he created a story that explores multiple dynamics of civilized society and human motivation. In the Puritan’s failure to force Hester into total submission, readers see the nature of the relationship between sin, knowledge and evil. However, the use of allegorical characters, reappearing symbols and realism, to qualify the lessons and to provide context, is meant to convey a universal message about human’s universal quest for freedom: people are ultimately limited by a natural tendency to escape oppression only to become the oppressor.